Scott Brown once threatened by angry litigant

Newly minted U.S. Sen. Scott P. Brown may be one of the most powerful men in America today, but 15 years ago he was just a young attorney who was being harassed by an angry litigant.

In 1994, then-reporter Claire Papanastasiou Rattigan interviewed Brown for a Lawyers Weekly story on attorneys whose clients “turned on them.”

The piece, titled “Lawyers Often See No Way Out When Clients Threaten,” reported that Brown, a family-law attorney in Boston at the time, had “handled a difficult divorce case where his client’s husband reported Brown to the BBO and to a judge.”

“He threatened my life and family,” said Brown, adding that his client had three previous lawyers, all of whom resigned because of the spouse’s abuse.

“I told her I would not drop the case,” said Brown. “It was quite an interesting opening to the judicial system and the divorce bar.”

A call to the Board of Bar Overseers reveals that if there was a complaint filed against Brown in 1994, it was never followed by a public investigation. Brown’s file has no record of public discipline.